Madeleine Albright was the first female secretary of the United States. She is now 84 years old. CNN reports that Albright Stonebridge Group (a strategy company located worldwide) was founded by a former official in the government.
Albright’s family released a statement on Twitter, according to the Associated Press, explaining that she succumbed to cancer and that she was “surrounded by family and friends” at the time of her death. “We have lost a loving mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend,” the statement read, also characterizing her as a “tireless champion of democracy and human rights.”
Albright was a crucial part of President Bill Clinton’s cabinet. Before becoming secretary of the state, she was first ambassador to United Nations.
She advocated for NATO’s expansion, as well as the efforts to enter the Balkans in order to prevent ethnic cleansings and genocide. Former officials worked also to reduce the spread of nuclear weapons.
Albright was a self-proclaimed “pragmatic idealist” who coined the term “assertive multilateralism” to describe the Clinton administration’s approach to foreign policy. Her worldview was shaped by her upbringing in an environment that had both survived the Nazis’ and communists.
Albright viewed the United States as an “indispensable nation” in how it used diplomacy to champion democracy worldwide.
“We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future, and we see the danger here to all of us,” she said during an interview with NBC in 1998. “I know that the American men and women in uniform are always prepared to sacrifice for freedom, democracy and the American way of life.”
President Barack Obama awarded Albright the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2012.
RedState will keep you updated as more information becomes available.
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